ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Empowering Our Generation: Mexico City Youth Pre-Conference

By Brian Ackerman, August 4, 2008
Posted on RH Reality Check

It is a rare occurrence, for a 21-year-old, to look around at an international conference and realize that it is being entirely run by peers of the same age. More than rare, it is inspiring. The Youth Pre-Conference, organized and implemented by the Mexico Youth Force, is a bilingual (English and Spanish) three-day preparation conference for young attendees of the 2008 International AIDS Society Conference in Mexico City. Our energy, enthusiasm, and passion for both fighting the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and supporting those living with HIV and/or AIDS are nothing short of incredible.

In particular, during my first day, I attended a session on being a strong ally of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. Not surprisingly, the room was not filled with heterosexual and cisgender individuals ("cisgender" refers to those who have the same gender as their assigned sex) , but rather, with young people that self-identified as sexual minorities from all around the world. A young LGBTQ activist from Turkmenistan facilitated the discussion.

During the hour and a half allotted for the session, we spent the first 50 minutes simply discussing various terms to explain the expansive array of sexual and gender identities that are different from heterosexual and cisgender. We debated the meanings of transvestite, travesti, transsexual, transgender, bisexual, pansexual, FTM (female-to-male), MTF (male-to-female), homosexual, heterosexual . . . and many others. In that discussion, however chaotic it may have seemed, we collectively recognized the cultural determinants of sexual identity formation and the social construction of marginalization. We noted that in many countries with the worst HIV epidemics, being a sexual minority is not a particularly easy identity to have in society, while in some it is completely criminalized. We connected social marginalization with vulnerability to HIV transmission and explored ways in which we, at our own organizations, could respond to various scenarios involving LGBTQ youth in need of support.

The marginalization of sexual minorities is, to my knowledge, not what most people would consider breaking news. However, I describe this session in detail because it effectively illustrates the significance and meaning of the youth pre-conference overall. While allying with and between different youth communities can be challenging, when young people are given the resources needed to have the opportunity to collaborate with one another in deep discussion and analysis, incredibly substantive conclusions can be drawn and we can educate one another based on our experiences on how to overcome daunting sociopolitical challenges.

International and bilingual, the pre-conference itself is also what some objective observers (and participants) might describe as seemingly chaotic. But judging by the incredible sessions, exchange of ideas, and networking, we are preparing ourselves quite well for participation at one of the largest international conferences in the world. We are sharing with one another our successes and failures in advocating for better policies and for better implementation of policies. We are readying ourselves to fight the battle against HIV and AIDS as our generation matures. Pretty empowering, no? I think so too.

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